Finding a replacement for Gary Williams hasn't been as easy as some thought

So let me get this straight …

According to national columnists including ESPN’s Andy Katz, Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com – guys who clearly know more than us local yokels here in North Carolina – Maryland is a much better basketball coaching job than N.C. State, has a much easier athletic director to work with and a much more realistic fan base.

And yet, somehow or another, the Terrapins seem to be having just as much luck attracting a big-name coach to fill their current opening as the Wolfpack did with its search.

Who knows? Maybe State AD Debbie Yow is getting back at Gary Williams by sabotaging the hiring process for his successor the way she accused Williams of doing with hers. Or maybe the Wolfpack job isn’t really as bad as the pundits would like us all to believe.

In either case, here’s a quick rundown of the coaches on whom the Terps’ Kevin Anderson has swung and missed, for those of you keeping score at home:

Sean Miller: Like State, Miller was at the top of Maryland’s wish list and according to Katz and others, he was signed, sealed and delivered to come to College Park. But lo and behold, Miller turned down the Terps and signed a contract extension to stay at Arizona.

Mike Brey: The Notre Dame coach was also reported to have had interest in the Maryland job, but like Miller, decided to stay put after getting a new contract and a healthy raise to stay at Notre Dame.

Brad Stevens: Really, Kevin. You wasted your time offering the job to someone who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon (or at least until the Indiana job comes open again)?

Jamie Dixon: Maryland clearly had an interest in the Pitt coach, but it’s unsure whether he was offered the job or not. It’s a moot point, anyway, since Dixon has come out with a public statement that he isn’t interested in the Terps. …

Kevin Anderson

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

With most of the A Listers officially now out of the picture, Maryland’s is reported to be making a run at Texas A&M’s Mark Turgeon. Who’s next, Shaka Smart?

Surely State fans have to be enjoying this.

Wonder how the big shots in the national media will try to spin Maryland’s difficulties to make it look as if they know what they’re talking about?

Chances are they’ll blame it on old reliables Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams. But don’t’ count Debbie Yow out, either.

Wow…. still harboring animosity.. and I’m not even sure why. Just happy to see maryland struggle? Think we ran debbie yow out of town? She sucked. Just wait until that nazi starts banning the marching and pep bands from playing certain songs at your school. Oh you didn’t know about that? Yeah. I almost feel like she was working for nc state when she was at maryland. Good riddance. You’ll soon see what she’s really all about.

Will anderson solve all of our problems? Time will tell. He’s certainly better than Yow…

Everyone in maryland was surprised when the media started playing up how good of a job it was. Don’t think we are so egotistical here that we believed all the hype.

Yes, I do think maryland is a better job than N.c state, but not much better. We are all ACC schools with rich program histories. I think we are just a bit farther separated from the likes of duke, unc, and even wake. Not to mention we have pg county and baltimore near by.

Regardless, I work with several nc state fans and I don’t think they are enjoying the hardships maryland is facing in finding a new coach. Just as maryland fans weren’t happy as nc state tried to find a new coach. But thanks for trying to be like the “national media” and over hype the news.

I think terpfan pretty much sums it up. I am bigger on Yow but the newness has not yet worn off. State fans by no means enjoy the Maryland struggle to find a new coach. We need/want all the teams to compete in the ACC.

How comical this piece is. No one from either school, who are real fans, root for failure. The fanbase is much more similar than either side cares to admit. The story line has its similarities, in that both schools had folks turn them down. It ends there. It would appear to me that according to all of these so called experts, Miller was on his way to Maryland. Daddy Miller is the one who told State no before they could even ask, instead pushing Archie as the candidate of choice for State. That was an insult, and Daddy Miller can take a hike. Gary Williams’ timing was horrible. Few top notch coaches want to leave at this point. Maryalnd fans shouldn’t want those coaches. They should want a guy who will stay with the program for 22 years. No one, inlcuidng the author of this rag piece, has a clue why Miller turned UMD down. In the day and age of tweeter, those twits twitting away can say what they wnat and it become truth. Maybe the UMD AD didn’t like what he heard from Miller. We will never know the truth.

1. NC State’s was held during the NCAA Tournament so NC State had to wait to talk to coaches (had to wait 2 weeks to talk to Miller and Shaka Smart). So NC State’s process was much more drawn out so more painful for State fans

2. National pundits like Goodman & Parrish were friends with Gary Williams so they were biased when they trashed State and pumped Maryland up. The media lynch mob for NC State was truly sad and amazing.

But it’s now appearing that little old NC State’s search wasn’t that much different than what those biased media members are referring to as the big UCLA of the East, Maryland.

Will those same media pundits now eat crow, or will they make up some more BS in teh form of excuses for the UCLA of the East, Maryland?

What these two searches have proven is that the chances of landing a proven coach at a top notch program is very difficult, unless said coach has strong ties to the program courting him ie Roy Williams coming back to UNC. Heck, even that one took two separate attempts. It’s not an insult to either program, just the current state of coaches not jumping ship except for the top 5-6 programs in the country. Fans of all schools in the conference should be interested in the best coaches wanting to be in the ACC. That is why the current ACC is the weakest it has ever been and why these new hires are so important to the future.

It is not easy to find a top tier coach, especially in May. Chances are if you are in need of a new coach your program is not a plum job anymore. It takes longer than a weekend to make a hire. We’ll see how things turn out.

But when it happens to State, it’s treated that way by most of the folks in the media. We State fans are tired of it. We’re not enjoying this because it hurts Maryland (although some probably are). We’re enjoying this because it SHOULD open everyone’s eyes. It’s not a bad reflection on the university when a coach decides to stay where he is (but please remember this the next time it happens to State, too!) And the State job is NOT the bad job it’s made out to be.

terpfan, Yow has actually come to a practice for our marching band and expressed some of the things that she wants to do to help us including possibly getting us a turf practice field. Everything she has said to us are things that I enjoyed hearing and it was a huge step up from what we had before. It also depends on those songs that you say that she banned because we have had songs banned here as well. We are no longer able to play the hey song. There has only been one song that she tried to say we should take out of our rotation and it was purely based on her opinion that jazz is not needed for athletics but she gave us the chance to prove that the song worked and we made our point. I am not saying that these things will not happen, but until they do I have not been given any reason not to stand behind Yow because so far she has not made any horrible decisions.

These are just little things that only matter to the regular fan, but Yow came in and took suggestions from regular fans, like getting a live mascot and having our endzones on the football field painted red.
Sure it’s small stuff, but compared to our previous AD its night and day. Fowlup never took an email from a fan. Fowlup couldn’t care less about a fan unless they were a big donor.

1. When N.C. State asked to talk to Sean Miller, he told them to pound sand. When Maryland asked to talk to Miller, he met with them, and sources close to him said he was close to taking the job before Zona threw a huge pile of money at him. He didn’t even bother attempting to leverage the N.C. State job for more money.

2. It’s adorable that you say “Who’s next, Shaka Smart?” as though State would scoff at such a hire. State would have loved to have landed Shaka Smart or Mark Turgeon, and probably a few dozen other coaches who could yet get the Maryland job. If Yow tries to say she wanted Gottfried over any of these guys, she’s either lying or she’s an idiot.

3. State was able to do their coaching search during prime season for coach-hunting. Maryland is decidedly post-season.

Most glaring of all this bitter little article’s failures is that it trumpets N.C. State as Maryland’s equal before Maryland’s coaching search is even over. Odds are still pretty good they land someone more coveted than Mark Gottfried. The fact that it’s hard to wrestle someone away from a successful job at a high profile school has nothing to do with Maryland’s stature relative to these schools and does nothing to detract from the desireability of the job itself. Having an AD with a horrendous reputation and having your campus within walking distance of two far more successful, better funded, higher profile juggernauts, far from an even remotely liveable metropolitan area (Raleigh sucks horribly), DOES affect the desireability of your head coaching vacancy.

Grow up and realize that there’s a reason why scores of journalists came out and immediately said the Maryland vacancy was the highest profile, biggest vacancy of the year, and why the only journalist from outside of Carolina who though the N.C. State job was a “great” job was an angry little man with a personal, long-standing hatred of Gary Williams and an equally-long-standing friendship with Debbie Yow.

Hey Boom, I’m surprised you could pull your head out of your ass long enough to type all of that. You really think that the Raleigh area isn’t a “liveable metropolitan area”? Guess someone should tell that to the hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of people that live and work there. You think the fact that Miller didn’t screw over NC State just to get a raise, but did do that to Merryland, is something to be proud of? Maybe you should take all of your bitterness and direct it toward your beloved drunk of a coach, who royally screwed you over leaving two months after the end of the season.

LOL BoomLawyered. I went to College Park for the 1st time and was warned by MARYLAND fans not to stay there after I had already booked a hotel in College Park. Boy am I glad they steered me straight. Not only does the ‘main drag’ in College Park look like a demilitarized zone – it is one! Your ‘main bar’ according to them had just been closed because someone had been shot or stabbed there (sorry can’t remember the juicy details.)

If you think the Raleigh area sucks and College Park is great then you must live in opposite land. So just for you – TGIF!!! Looks like we’re in for a long winter…… and MARYLAND IS #1!!!!!! WEEEEEEE!!!

Given: college park is a horrible city which unfortunately surrounds our beautiful university. I’ll leave my feelings toward the politics of liberal pg county out of thos post. That said, maryland is a wonderful place to live with plenty of great places to live nearby college park. For example, 2 of the wealthiest counties in america are right next door as are the best high schools (if you want to raise a family). I’m from annapolis myself and I can’t imagine a better place to raise a child especially if you are making the kind money that maryland is ready to throw at a coach.

I’ve been to raleigh and it was nice. I thought it a little odd though when a cop stopped me and told me not to go into the “black nightclub” and that id be better off with my own kind. I guess he was just looking after me? Or maybe north carolina still has a little ways to go with racial relations? I’m not judging, but that turned me off from ever living there. True story.

Children, children, children … I step away from the computer for a couple of hours and this is what happens? Consider this your one and only warning.

It’s okay to stick up for your school, your new coach, your athletic director and your hometown. It’s also okay to take some good natured jabs at each other and me (or at least, my opinions). That however, is where I draw the line. Any — and I can’t emphasize this enough — ANY personal attacks or racial comments will be deleted immediately and the author will be subject to banishment. I have already deleted several offensive posts. Please don’t make me lock down this thread, because the bantering is too much fun.

Interesting news coming out. Turgeon was interviewed by anderson in pittsburgh (somebody else in that area we know?). Also interesting: Gary Williams (now asst. AD) reportedly suggested to Anderson that Maryland talk to Turgeon.

I’m still getting used to the idea that Gary won’t be courtside. Going to be weird. I think I’m pretty okay with Turgeon though. 4 years at TAMU and 4 NCAA appearances. Not bad. Better than Gary over the last 4 years.